High-Stakes Holiday Reunion Read online

  “Stop fighting me! I just want the money. Give it to me, and I’ll leave you be.”

  She wanted to. She really did, but she had no idea what he was talking about. “My purse—”

  Someone knocked on the diner’s front door.

  Emma’s attacker froze, his hand still fisted in her hair.

  The person knocked again, this time hard enough to rattle the doorframe.

  “Who is it?” the man growled at Emma.

  “I don’t know.”

  He shoved her violently, and she stumbled forward, her knees hitting the tile floor. She felt no pain, felt nothing but the fear that coursed through her.

  Balmy air lapped at her hot cheeks, and she realized she was alone, the back door open.

  “Emma!” Someone called her name, and she tried to respond, but the words caught in her throat.

  She had to get up, walk through the dining room and open the front door. Every movement hurt as she dragged herself upright and shuffled out of the kitchen.

  “Emma!” The front door rattled, and she took a step toward it, dizzy, off balance. She tripped over something, her hands hitting the ground seconds before her head crashed into the tile floor.

  Copyright © 2013 by Harlequin Books S.A.

  ISBN-13: 9781460321997

  HIGH-STAKES HOLIDAY REUNION

  Copyright © 2013 by Christy Barritt

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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